The set-up: The mid-season gauntlet of four games in a row in their division continues for the Browns with their first 2015 meeting with the Steelers. Johnny (Manziel) was taking the majority of the reps.
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The Browns do have a lot of question marks entering Sunday’s game. He is passionate about all sports, but will only break things when the NY Giants are on.
Manziel is expected to start his second straight game because McCown hasn’t passed the most important test – whether he can take a hit.
Josh McCown has been good at times this year, but is also still recovering from a rib injury.
Maybe you heard on the radio this week that with Ben Roethlisberger sidelined again, the Steelers would be advised to “p’ahnd it awna gr’ahnd against the Br’ahns”, but with the shape Cleveland’s secondary is in – starters Joe Haden and Donte Whitner will not play – the temptation to turn Brown loose again is fairly monstrous.
Manziel is 1-3 in four career starts. XM subscribers get the game on channel 228 with the Steelers radio broadcast. (For either team?) Should the Browns fire head coach Mike Pettine?
One area in which the Steelers struggled heavily on defense last week was in generating a pass rush against a strong Raiders line.
Pettine and general manager Ray Farmer think the Browns must resolve their quarterback issues before they can begin to rediscover their winning ways.
“They got me for the wording that was on the side of it”, Norman told reporters. He should not play this week against the Browns.
While Pettine seemingly has hitched his future to McCown, DeFilippo seems confident Manziel is on the right path. Instead, nothing has worked defensively.
Hopefully after all these years coach Tomlin and Roethlisberger have learned that it is not worth risking your franchise quarterback for one regular season game. It’s been a snowball effect of negativity, and Pettine has not attempted to do anything semi-drastic to attempt to stop the bleeding. “I can”t put an amount on it, but he”s steadily improved through the week.”.
Jones is 2-0 coming off the bench, including putting together a late field goal drive last week against Oakland after Roethlisberger exited Heinz Field on a cart. Pettine is hopeful Gipson can play against the Steelers. The offense has been a bright spot, but runs too hot-and-cold from quarter to quarter. Who should play quarterback? They need to find a way to limit both the passing and running games. This is a highly potent offense that has to hope QB Jones and RB Williams can stay productive in the short term.
Of course, at 5-4 Pittsburgh would prefer the sure thing. “Yeah, absolutely, definitely”, said Vick if that’s how it would play out, via Penn Live. Pittsburgh should and will do anything they can to get their best defensive players matched up against our tight ends and fullback, because it will surely help them disrupt plays in the backfield, particularly against the run.
How do you see this game playing out on Sunday?
Heinz Field has been a graveyard for Browns coaches.
Pittsburgh Steelers quarterback Ben Roethlisberger.
The first half of the season has been ideal in every way for the Bengals.
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Stop me if you’ve heard this before: the Cleveland Browns spent an entire week preparing for a game while not knowing who would be the starting quarterback.
